
Originally Posted by
ill-advised strategy
That whole unskilled labor comment…
I mean, it’s one thing to debate about basic entry-level line diggers, I guess, and even that is a real winnable debate when you start looking at the extraordinary fitness and a constellation of little things like operating and field-fixing saws, programming radios, keeping your line gear and PG together in a professional way, reading fuels/weather/terrain, the fine art of dry mopping, evaluating and falling burnt snags…
But more importantly, even as much more involved and skilled as the hand crewmember role is, there’s so much more to the field than the random line digger.
This thing is pervasive, and really bothers me personally, because coming off a career where I had to gain a lot of knowledge and master a lot of skills, I had to deal with trying to find a job in a world full of people who think what I did was dig dirt with a shovel and spray water with a hose. People whose dumb ass obese cousin in Ohio is a volunteer firefighter, or whatever…so heh heh they know what it’s like out there, heh heh.
They could never imagine the totality of, say, an IMT taking over a growing type 3 fire. Or being the first engine boss to arrive at an fast growing interface fire at the edge of one of these western cities. Or a “forestry technician” who spends most of his time dealing with IQCS and arranging and conducting the many formal training courses involved and creating and adjusting automated dispatch plans and staffing level plans for dozens of response zones at different levels of burning index and energy release component, all based on weather and fuel monitoring systems they manage, and specifying equipment needs and managing budgets…then once there’s a fire they’re in an airplane coordinating between dozens of resources on the ground and fight following and coordinating firefighting efforts and managing airspace for multiple tactical aircraft and communicating statuses and assessments to dispatch so other similar “forestry technicians” can complete complex reporting and notification and record-keeping functions so others can make important complex decisions about moving other engines and crews and aircraft to maintain preparedness for the next fire, ramping-up or down the response to the fire in question, food, water, fuel, hose, hose fittings, pumps, portable tanks, tires, medical care, giant tents, generators, dozers, pickup trucks, FAA restrictions, GIS mapping, news media, law enforcement, security, tires, chainsaw parts, helicopter parts, mobile showers, trash, rotating personnel in and out to meet length of duty. Managing timekeeping and contracts for the vendors of all those.
An organization of dozens of functions, thousands of people, that’s arranged over days, if not hours.
And some fucking political douche looks at this and defends the shit pay and fucked up bullshit with this idea that, like…whatever, anybody can put on a banana suit and spray water with a hose. It’s infuriating, honestly.
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